Grand theatre show on musicians opens Friday

Royston Abel, known for his musical extravaganza The Manganiyar Seduction, presents a new production

Noted playwright and theatre director Roysten Abel from Kerala will premiere his new production ‘Weaving Voices’ in Bengaluru on Friday.

Using a blend of theatre, music, audio-visual and design, the show will depict the personal journeys of Indian musicians, both veteran and upcoming.

The stellar cast features vocalist Bombay Jayashri, Uday Bhawalkar, a dhrupad vocalist, singer-actor MD Pallavi, folk-sufi musician Deu Khan Manganiyar, alongside younger talent like flautist Rasika Shekar, violinist Apoorva Krishna, mridangam player Sumesh Narayanan, and tabla artiste MT Aditya Srinivasan. Academy Award winner Resul Pookutty has done the sound design.

The show is produced by Bhoomija, a city-based trust that promotes arts. It all began when Gayathri Krishna connected Jayashri and Roysten to see the possibility of creating something to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Bhoomjia, of which she is the managing trustee. Each of them recommended more artistes, and soon, a team was formed. They met and rehearsed at Nrityagram, a gurukul-cum-dance village near Hesarghatta.

Gayathri gives a peek into what one can expect: “Roysten has juxtaposed the personal histories of super senior musicians — from the challenges they faced to how they overcame it and how their music has travelled far and wide with them, with that of these four precocious, young musicians.” She feels the storyline will resonate with the audience because dilemmas like “Am I doing the right thing or not?” and “Will this work or not?” are part of everyone’s lives.

While the story is mounted on musicians, she assures the show is theatrical, consistent with the grand vision of Roysten, who is famous for works like ‘The Manganiyar Seduction’.

* ‘Weaving Voices’ at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Malleswaram, on October 21 (7 pm) and October 22 (11 am and 7 pm). Tickets available online.